Madam, – I hope by the time Taoiseach Brian Cowen addresses the United Nations Millennium Development Goals Summit later this month, he will have taken on board the wishes of the vast majority of the Irish people as expressed by respondents to the recent Ipsos MRBI poll. (“Big majority wants Ireland to deliver on overseas aid promise, says survey”, Home News, September 6th).
The Taoiseach must remember that he is not speaking as an individual but representing the Irish people, over 80 per cent of whom think the Government should honour its promise to spend 0.7 per cent of GDP on overseas aid by 2015.
I call on the Government once again to stop cutting the aid budget and get back on track to achieving the 0.7 per cent figure. We have already reneged twice on our promise to the world’s poor and in the past two years the overseas aid budget has been slashed by 21 per cent.
Recession or no recession, the people of Ireland want to help the poor and the vulnerable of this world and in a democracy it is the Government’s job to exercise the wishes of the electorate. – Yours, etc,